


Enhanced Hearing

by Miss_Katherine (for_steggy)



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Attempt at a Romcom, Coma, F/M, Misunderstandings, Steggy Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:14:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21977164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/for_steggy/pseuds/Miss_Katherine
Summary: They say that when someone is in a coma they can hear everything that goes on around them. Peggy really hopes that isn't true.
Relationships: Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers, Steggy
Comments: 12
Kudos: 108





	Enhanced Hearing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [chasingkerouac](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chasingkerouac/gifts).



> Set after the Lorraine incident, but before the compass news reel.
> 
> For ckerouac on tumblr in the Steggy Secret Santa 2019 exchange! I sincerely hope this fulfills your need for RomCom content. It's not Christmas themed...  
> I'm so sorry.
> 
> But anyway, Merry late Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Someone was let into the room by a nurse, and by the faint thank you uttered as the door shut, he knew it was Peggy. She sat down next to the bed and didn't say anything, just fidgeted slightly in her seat, coat rustling in her arms. Moments lapsed until finally she leaned in close. “Steve?” she breathed, “I—“ Footsteps, Phillips most likely, appeared. Faint chatting. He caught the words “uncertain condition” and something about her being needed at camp.

“Yes sir. Just a moment.” The footsteps went away and he could hear her deep breathing in the heavy silence of the room. “Please wake up,” she said quietly, and a dull something clicked in his brain. In the recesses of his mind he was straining at his limbs to move, for his eyelids to flutter. Anything to let her know he could hear, but there was nothing.

Peggy was entirely unaware of the battle going on within the sleeping form before her as she continued on, mostly to herself. “I think I had myself almost fooled into believing you were invincible…” her gentle voice faltered. She brushed his hand so lightly it could have been imagination. “Be stubborn, Steve.”

The chair made a noise as she sat up and he wanted something to happen, anything to make her stay a moment longer. His panic was cut short when he felt her lips brush his forehead hurriedly. “Come back to me, my darling,” she whispered, and without enhanced hearing he would have missed it. She sounded small and scared.

His heart was pounding so loudly in his ears that he didn't even register that the door had shut and she was gone.

*

Early in the morning Peggy sat at her desk, sorting through a stack of files with her usual uncrackable composure. She had shown up just as she had every other day, with uniform neatly pressed, face fresh, lips red, and hair curled. But today eyes had been turned towards her, looking to see if her legendary wall of professionalism would falter. It didn’t. Yet, in the pit of her chest was a dull ache. The looks however only served to make her more defiant.

After several hours of reviewing classified transcripts, she sat up and decided to fetch a quick lunch, making her way to the mess hall while successfully avoiding the new recruits. Thankfully the place was empty, save two men standing idly by the water cooler smoking. She recognized them with frustration as some of her higher ups, the ones that never seemed to do anything besides smoke and complain. As annoying as they were when asking for coffee at every meeting, she acknowledged they had a certain value when a person wanted to attain information about camp.

Peggy walked over to the counter and pretended to contemplate the sad mashed potatoes and green beans. They paid her no attention; Sometimes she seriously thought about how quickly their downfall would be if a spy was in their midst.

Listening carefully she heard the tail end of a crude remark, until the subject took a more useful turn. One of them snubbed out his cigaret on a dirty plate. “Heard about Rogers lately?” She stiffened.

“Got a bullet in the brain last week, I heard.”

“Yep, yep. Only the bastard actually woke up this morning. Can you believe that?”

“Shit, you gotta be kidding me. That’s just not fair.”

She was unhearing of what they said after that. Despite how angry she had been with Steve after catching him with the secretary, and even more for the resulting argument, his almost dying had put some feelings into perspective. If he did turn out to be alright, well there was a time and a place to be upset.

It took restraint not to leave, to rush out and find some excuse to see for herself that he was unharmed. What she did instead was school her features, decide on a cup of tea, and leisurely make her way out. Once outside she took a deep breath and her stride turned to one of determination. She made her way with purpose back to her desk, handed her tea to a grateful secretary, and tried to get something done while she waited for an opportunity. What she would not do, she told herself, was sit idly by thinking about her own silly wishes. There was a war on after all.

That didn't stop her mind from drifting to Steve as she marked away at government secrets. What if he had brain damage? What if he lost his motor controls? What if he couldn’t even remember his own name, let alone her? It made her feel sick to even think about those possibilities, because Steve deserved _better._ It must have been a solid minute before her eyes refocused and she realized she had been staring at a wall.

This was ridiculous! Well, it was clear that nothing was getting done until she had her answers. Phillips, that was it. She could somehow getit out of him somehow—he would know.

She stood and started on her way to the Col.’s office, rounding the corner at a brisk pace. All at once as she turned, she ran straight into what seemed to be a brick wall. She startled up, thoroughly annoyed, until her eyes met with Steve’s scrambling figure. He helped her up.

“Sorry! I didn't see you there.”

The normal quick and dry retort froze on her lips; Peggy was eternally grateful at that moment for water cooler gossip, otherwise she might have fainted like a complete fool.

When she was up off the ground and he had gotten a good look at her, he seemed to straighten up. “Peggy,” he said, his voice sounding deeper than before. “It’s you.”

Her mouth hung open but, mercifully, Phillips burst through his office door looking predictably impatient.

“Come on, boy! You were needed in here ten minutes ago.” Steve looked at her apologetically and went in before she could even nod her head.

When the office door shut, Peggy stared at it. It didn't seem possible, despite what she had seen the serum do before. But thenshe scolded herself back into some form of composure and went back to her desk, turning with renewed vigor to the ever looming stack of files, dutifully ignoring the tremor in her hands.

A half hour later and twenty files done in quick succession with that special kind of efficiency that only an absent mind can have, Steve suddenly appeared at the opening of the hallway. He was glancing around earnestly like she’d seen him do a thousand times before, but when he caught her eye his face turned into a lopsided smile. Her heart fluttered, but she only nodded at him.

She wanted to rush to him, to hold him until she had herself convinced that he was really here. But that was foolish. She had absolutely no right to feel concerned or possessive over him. They had no understanding—a point made perfectly clear when she caught him with Lorraine. It was below her to pine for him.

He reached her desk and looked down at her as she finished marking a paper. “Captain Rogers,” she greeted without looking up.

“Agent Carter,” he returned easily. “Sorry again for knocking into you.”

“It was nothing,” she said, and when she finally raised her head, his eyes were trained on her with something suspiciously like warmth.

She looked away, not being able to stand the blue of his eyes. However he wouldn't let up. “You’re feeling awfully better, it seems,” she commented dubiously after a moment.

He didn't falter. “Well, I had some incentive.”

“Yes. The men will be relieved to know you’re alright.”

He looked at her curiously and she felt her cheeks grow hot.

Peggy had quite enough of whatever was happening between them for the moment, and not even relief for his being well would make her subject herself to it. She stood and he backed away slightly as she gathered her files. “Captain,” she acknowledged and walked off to the filing room.

The next few days were a similar turn of strange behavior in him. The Commandos had been stationed in London for the time being while strategy planning a new mission in the Alps. Even so, Peggy didn't see a reason why Steve should always be walking by her desk, running into her outside meetings, taking lunch with her, or happening to walk beside her on the way back to her barracks at the end of the night. Though his were only a couple hundred feet away, she always stayed far later than anyone beside Philips himself. There was simply no reason.

In all honesty, she didn't know quite how to handle it. Considering they still had unresolved issues, Peggy elected to more or less ignore it. He didn't seem to understand whatever problems they had couldn't simply be swept away so easily. Though it was tempting.

Today he walked up and politely asked her to lunch. She agreed curtly.

It was nearing two and the mess hall was deserted. They grabbed food and sat down across from each other at one of the long tables. Steve’s mood was as steady as it had been since he had awoken, although she was giving him absolutely nothing to work with.They ate silently, and whenever she looked up caught him smiling gently at her. It was infuriating, it was intolerable. _Why_ did he have to be so lovely.

When they were done he stood and helped her with the plates. They walked out side by side into the grey light of London.Before Peggy could advance any further, Steve stopped and touched her hand. She startled but covered it quickly, raising an eyebrow.

He reached inside his large wool overcoat and revealed a small pink rose. For a moment Peggy was so stunned that she just stared at him.

He looked slightly nervous, but determined, and held it out towards her. She flushed and crossed her arms, “Steve,” she began.

“I’m sorry,” he cut in quickly, jerking his hand back. He looked embarrassed and more than a little confused. “I just thought…you said…” he trailed off.

“I said what?“ Peggy asked incredulously, thinking back to their previous conversations that could have lead him to think that this had somehow been the right move. There was the time before the procedure in the car, and the time she had shown up in that red number at the bar, but those were both before Lorraine, before he was in a coma and—she blanched.

_He couldn't have heard._

“Look, I’m—I’m not laughing,” he said, and if he had a hat it looked like he would be wringing it.

Oh dear goodness.

“I just—I couldn’t help what I heard. But if you don't really feel that way then…”

“I…” Peggy began, flushing.

She could have kicked herself. It wasn't like her to be so careless, but even with all of his enhanced abilities she couldn't have known...

They stood there in silence. Steve was looking at her, waiting. Peggy couldn’t quite meet his eyes, her mouth still open, her mind racing.

“Peggy?”

She stuttered again and he seemed to shift, his nervousness dissipating. He tentatively came closer.

When he pulled her gently into his arms, she let him do it. But she couldn't return it; There were too many emotions floating through her: She was embarrassed, she was annoyed. She was in love.

He held her for a long time without saying anything. Slowly she held him back, relief washing over her.

Above her he finally asked, “Am I really your darling?”

“Steve, I swear—“

She could hear him smiling now. “Okay, okay. I’ll shut up.”

After a beat, feeling far too reckless from events of the past week, Peggy quietly said, “I suppose so.” Quickly she added, “But this doesn't change that I’m still angry with you.”

He laughed, the vibration bouncing against her cheek. She looked up at him then, and the happiness written over his face undid all the previous reservation in her. She raised her face.

And then finally, _finally,_ he kissed her.


End file.
